I’ve switched from AppSheet to vibe coding using Next.js and Supabase via Cursor. Honestly at this point I think product management at Appsheet must be wondering what the point is of having a low code platform in a no code world.
I’ve re-platformed a few AppSheet-based projects, made them better, removed the user licensing barriers, and constructed them in much less time than the Appsheet versions took to make.
When I think of all the time I spent learning the workarounds needed to circumnavigate around Appsheet’s various shortcomings, I think of it as sunk cost. No regrets, but glad to have moved on from all the crazy Appsheet quirks and limitations.
All the recent updates are related to AI or license management (admin platform) related things where probably 1% of the community members interests have been attracted. All the features, such as advanced connectors (connecters to Salesforce/Service Now etc) is targeting to a certain enterprise accounts alone, who may have requested to introduce (using their own bargaining power to Google. As a result, they are not used (technically not able to use) by the majority of AppSheet users (core or enterprise even).
AI features are pretty much limited to a certain user cases. Token (quotas) are limited to the lower side, so not accomodate the real-world use cases due to bunch of “limitation”.
Once the basic/standard AppSheet features are not solving the issue, the Google ask to move to “Apps Script” to add the features, even the AppSheet is no-code platform. Obviously the Google is trying to shift this platform from no-code to low-code. It appears they are trying to relive the App Maker (low code platform) which could not get much of interests from the market. (LIkely they forgot how they failed with App Makers …. )
No basic features have been enhanced for years.
No users online event hosted (for years). Before Google time, AppSheet teams hosted weekly webinar to address the new features and questions from the community.
The “feature request” category is removed, in order not to listen to the voice of the users, so that they can concentrate on the larger voice from the larger entity (the massive number of the AppSheet enterprise license holders alone, leaving the free (inc. GWS + Core license holder) behind.
This community place turned to be a place to share the problems (bugs, outages) or complains about the platform, rather than exchanging the new ideas or solutions (discouraging)
No excitement for the expectations about the AppSheet for long-terms/near-terms, as AppSheet teams / management failed to “share their dreams” with the community. So we are at a loss where this platform is moving forward.
IYeah, I agree with you. Even though I have the enterprise license, I’m not using the AI stuff or the return value type in AppSheet. The data sync and transfer just aren’t fast enough. I think they should focus on making the platform more stable and adding features that actually help users. That’s what the AppSheet team should be working on, in my opinion.
You are likely to leave from AppSheet (sad story) but AppSheet is still far better platform among others. So I stick with it, as there is no other alternative.
Back in 2020, Google acquired this platform. Only visible improvement to this platform is just enhanced the Automation. They renaved Workflow to Automation and then added the new features but they are all to enhance the integration with their own platform, such as Forms, Gmail, Folders etc. Other than that, there is no visible/outstanding new features have been added so far after Google gain the control over this platform.
However, still AppSheet is exceptional, and no replacement. Because of fundamentals of AppSheet (designed by ex-Google AppSheet members) was well ahead of the time.
The problems we are encountering is Google team not well-understand such an important points, and developping this platform for their own comfort, not for the user-comfort. If this continues, the AppSheet may get to be old-fashioned, as Google failed to feed the most-needed features to the platform.
Given the AppSheet team’s focus on sales and development, it appears they may not be fully immersed in the practical application of the AppSheet platform for internal operations or team collaboration, potentially limiting their perspective on user experience enhancements.
Before I go to bed, let me recap what I want to say.
The main problem with AppSheet is Google team is working with “internal/company circumstances” with top priority, while the users voice/needs and wishes are seconded. This is not a problem with Google only, the large companies may have the common issues.
It it not a complex story, but easy one, if the management team realize what the important stuffs (not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the end users)
This important point is completely forgotten.
AppSheet still have unlimited potential/possibilities, but this is leave behind, but the internal/company circumstances are prioritized among others, that s the core of the problems.
Thats why after throwing bunch of the community members here claims, suggest or whatsoever they place their voice here to the Google, but the conversation never get established in the right way. Because they are listening to their voice (considering the internal/company circumstances) rather than listening to our actual voices.
If I were ceo of AppSheet I would be dissatisfied with the current output. For weeks, months and even years there has been no visible progress of substance. That suggests two possibilities: either there is no effective team in place or the group that exists is limited to basic maintenance and outsourced support.
From the outside it does not look like product development is happening. It looks inactive. No vision, no urgency, no evidence of forward motion.
A team cannot justify releasing one minor feature per quarter that no one asked for. That is not innovation, that is token activity. Delivering filler updates is worse than delivering nothing at all. It signals indifference.
A product of this scale should have momentum. Customers should be able to see consistent improvements that reflect real demand not token updates. Stakeholders should see proof that the team is pushing the platform forward not keeping it on life support. If the best we can show is survival then we are already losing.
The absence of progress signals either a lack of leadership a lack of capability or a lack of accountability. No strategy, no execution, no results. This is not a functioning product team.
At this point it is not a matter of perception. It is the reality that the platform appears neglected. If the resources exist they are being misused. If the team exists it is not functioning. And if the leadership exists it is not driving outcomes. A serious product cannot afford to operate at this level of inactivity without eroding both trust and relevance. When nothing changes everything declines.
AppSheet feels like it should be the way to go for “simple” integrations and and little custom fun and useful things. But, it’s much as being said here, it feels stale and quiet and barely moving along. This is very much contrary to the pace overall in Workspace which looks to be Warpspeed vs. snails in hibernation. It’s not unreasonable to expect more.
I do feel there is a LOT of product architectural refactoring going on behind the scenes. The sort of things that have to be done very gently and incrementally so as not to break everything all at once.
The Admin Console I feel is a clue as to what is happening with the architectural updates and the telemetry surfaced there.
Put yourself in their shoes and think of the things you as developers of AppSheet applications are asked to do. Maybe your customer needs a ‘simple’ column added to such and such a table to record ‘X’. Got to be easy to do that right? Shouldn’t take long right?
Well of course its easy to do that if you don’t mind breaking your application completely for everyone who is using it. The table structure has changed, but now you have to update ALL of the apps that use that table. All of the Bots that use data updates to take into account the new column, all of the forms that need to ask for that new column to be filled, all of the API payloads you used to speed things up…and so on.
Of course you CAN do all of that and it will take you time to do…but then you push the update out. Now, some of your customers were using the old version and so data corruption starts to happen because of that one ‘simple’ column addition.
Those nightmares happen to you, the AppSheet developer. So now take a step back up the architectural tree that all of your Apps depend on working properly and see it from the Google team who are trying to make the platform better without breaking it.
Would it be cool to see a roadmap of proposed new features? Absolutely! Especially one that is given at the start of the update process rather than at the end of it. What about a system overhaul log? I’d love to get a behind the scenes look at the manifest of architectural changes that are needed, completed, planned and so on. Is it going to happen? I bet it already has for Google’s first party customers with huge monthly Google bills.
I would love to be wrong, but I don’t think hope is real.
If this were a fairy tale with a happy ending, someone from their team would write how we are all wrong and everything will be fine, they just forgot to tell us when it will be, what they are planning, and that the bugs are being worked on.
So we are still uncertain whether we should wait for the bugs to be fixed, or whether it will be fixed in a year, or never, and therefore we are waiting unnecessarily and should look for a workaround ourselves.
So the information is fundamentally missing and that is why we are playing detective here.
But if Google employees don’t have it either, or they are not positive for us, let’s not be surprised that they don’t give it to us, they would be cutting their own branch.
I have been training thousands of users in Vietnam to adopt AppSheet and have implemented projects for hundreds of SMEs, most of them on Google Workspace Business and some on Gmail. In the early stages of digitalizing processes, AppSheet was a great fit and solved many real-world needs.
However, over the last five years, I’ve seen little real progress in the platform. The limitations in UX, speed, and overall user experience remain unchanged, while AppSheet updates have mostly been bug fixes and “nice-to-have” features rather than meaningful improvements. The recent focus on Gemini AI feels disconnected from what AppSheet users actually need, since AI is not AppSheet’s strength, and very few people are interested in using it here.
What the community really needs is a stable, reliable, and customizable platform with essential features for managing workflows effectively — not experimental AI integrations. Without a clear roadmap for core improvements, I am seriously considering moving to alternative platforms with stronger support for code and AI where necessary. And if I move, it’s very likely that my students, clients, and community will move as well, since they all face the same pain points and limitations.
Hey there, thanks so much for getting this essential feedback to us!
We’ve locked in the following list as our immediate priority for the development team. Please take a look and let us know if we should switch up the order:
Stability (Fewer Bugs)
AI Capabilities
Automation/Integrations
UX Improvements
This platform’s mission is to empower you to solve real problems. Your insights are absolutely critical! We’d love to continue working with you.
I’m experiencing a critical issue that seems to be affecting AppSheet globally. When trying to edit a row, the operation fails with the following error message:
Operation: Edit row
Message: Unable to update row in table ‘BDD CORTE DE OPERADOR’.
→ Unable to save image
→ The service storage has thrown an exception. HttpStatusCode is Forbidden.
appsheet-compute@appsheet-prod.iam.gserviceaccount.com does not have storage.objects.get access to the Google Cloud Storage object.
Permission 'storage.objects.get' denied on resource (or it may not exist).
This is preventing my app from working properly. It looks like a permissions issue on AppSheet’s own service account (appsheet-compute@appsheet-prod.iam.gserviceaccount.com) with Google Cloud Storage.
Could the AppSheet team please confirm if this is a known/global outage and provide an update on when it will be resolved?
Why is your public profile hidden? Who are you, and what is your role with AppSheet? Why should we think your posts are in any way significant? Introduce yourself and explain your role.
This is a good priority list. Thank you very much for sharing. My suggestion would be to swap AI capabilities and UX improvements order. UX is first level of interaction by any app user with the app. Great AI or any other capabilities will go to the user through the front door of user friendly UX. UX can be viewed as a basic infrastructure like a greatly constructed motorable road on which then advanced / state of the art vehicles of AI and automation/integration can move fast.
So my request will be to prioritize
Stability
UX improvements
Automations/Integrations
AI capabilities
I will share just couple of examples of UX that have been raised by AppSheet community members before.
Majority of the AppSheet apps involve on the field or in office data capture and data viewing. So an easier data capture and data viewing will go a long way.
